<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<recipeml version="0.5">
  <recipe>
    <head>
      <title>1986 Winner Praline Cookies</title>
      <categories>
        <cat>Cookies</cat>
        <cat>Holiday</cat></categories>
      <yield>36</yield></head>
    <ingredients>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1/2</qty>
          <unit>cups</unit></amt>
        <item>Butter</item></ing>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1 1/2</qty>
          <unit>cups</unit></amt>
        <item>Packed brown sugar</item></ing>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1</qty>
          <unit/></amt>
        <item>Egg</item></ing>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1 1/2</qty>
          <unit>cups</unit></amt>
        <item>Flour</item></ing>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1</qty>
          <unit>teaspoon</unit></amt>
        <item>Vanilla</item></ing>
      <ing>
        <amt>
          <qty>1</qty>
          <unit>cup</unit></amt>
        <item>Chopped pecans</item></ing></ingredients>
    <directions>
      <step>  Preparation time: 25 minutes Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes
  
    1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and egg. Stir in flour,
  vanilla and pecans. Mix well by hand. Shape into balls about the size of
  walnuts, place on cookie sheets and flatten to about 1/8 inch.
  
    2. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown. Remove from oven and allow to
  cool completely and harden.
  
    Winner Jean McGree of Flossmoor "bores everyone," she says, with this
  family tale of Christmas praline cookies: "Since the time Mom had been a
  little girl, each November Grandma would surround her back yard pecan tree
  with sheets to catch the falling nuts. But most of the nuts had to be
  knocked from the branches with her long-handled broom. Then she would spend
  hours stooped over those sheets, picking up the pecans and sorting the good
  ones from the black and hollow shells.
  
    "When her daughter married and moved away, the nuts were carefully picked
  over, packaged and shipped 'up North.' Free time in the first week of
  December was always marked for shelling the pecans. Sore hands and stiff
  backs were repaid with secret nibbling and promises of praline cookies for
  Christmas.
  
    "Soon, I'll start looking for a package from Great-Grandma in South
  Carolina. Then, as we crack the pecans, I can retell the 'pecan story' to
  Michael and Ann, who know that Santa always looks for pralines on Christmas
  Eve." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest
  December 4, 1986
  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #340
  
  From: Linda Place &lt;placel@worldnet.att.net&gt;
  
  Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:57 +0000
 
</step></directions></recipe></recipeml>
